The South western news., 1887-07-20

fore feet, and uttering an ominous
sort of below that seemed threat-
ening. l turned and walked away,
moving toward the cottonwood
trees. | looked back over my
; shoulder and saw the bull coming
j along after me. / increased my
speed, and 80 did he, until I was
running my fastest and the bull
| was doing his best behind me. /
can't say exactly how it was done,
! but Il wasn't many seconds before
| found myself In one Of these cot.
sonwosd trees, out oil reach Of the
bull, who was Immediately under
the tree, paving dirt and acting
very mad. ] shall always belicv
that | was hoisted into that tree
by the bull, although | had no evil
dence to show for 1t.
"The bull paved and grumbled
under the tree for a few minutes,
and then turned and walked toward
the thicket, on the creek, side of
which. there was no water hole
The other cattle went quietly to
grazing where | had first seen
them.
81 suppose the bull started tos
ward the thicket to get a drink at
the water hole, but he never got
the drink. ! Jaw him push his way
into the thicket, and the next in
slant / could see that he had got
into trouble of some kind, and that
trouble proved to be a grizzly bear.
A fierce struggle followed Ia the
thicket. The tops of the bushes
swayed to and fro, and IcouId hear
the heavy crash of driFtwood as the
two powerful animals writhed in
fierce embrace. A cloud of dust
rolled up from the spot. 1t was
not distant over 100 yards from
the tree in which / had taken ref.
uge. Scarcely two minutes clap
! sed before the bull broke through
the bushes. His bead was covered
with blood, and great flakes of flesh
hung from his fore shoulders. But
instead Of showing any signs of de-
feat he seemed literally to glow
with defiant rage. Instinct had
simply prompted him in his retreat
to seek an open space. He was
1.-THE and wiry, yet wonderfully
massive about the shoulders, com~
bining the rarest qualities of
strength and symmetry. For a
moment he stood glaring at the
bushes he had retreated from, his
nostrils distended and his whole
form fixed and rigid. But scarce
ly had l time to note all this when
the bear, a huge, repulsive looking
brute, broke through the opening.
lie was the most formidable speci-
men of his kind | had ever seen,
and my sympathles were at once
with the bull in spite of his belig-
erent attitude towards me a few
minutes before, but / had my seri>
GUS doubts about the final result of
the combat that began at once.
'The combat was trial of brute
force that no words of mine are
adequate to describe. When the
bear made his appearance out of
the thicket the bull did not wait
for his contestants charge, but,
lowering his great head to the
ground, he rushed madly upon the
bear. The latter seemed to anpre>
ciate the abilities of the bull, and
summoned all the wariness of his
nature to his aid. He waited until
the bull was almost upon him, and
then sprung aside with marvellous
quickness, seized his assailant's
horns in his powerful grasp, and
pressed his head down against the
ground by his great strength and
the weight of his enormous BODY,
biting at the bulls nose and tearing
the flesh from his neck and shouts
ders with his long sharp claws
This position was maintained for
at least five minutes, the DULL strug.
Cling desperately to free his head,
but being unable to accomplish it,
while the bear put forth every mus
Gle to press the bulls body to the
ground. The blood poured from
the bulls uostrils in great streams,
but the bear had as yet received no
apparent injury.
Presently both animals paused
in their desperate struggle, as each
was blown and rapidly approaching
exhaustion. The bear did not re-
lax his hold he had obtained on his
| Contestant Ae var dur;no. Az